The ascent to the sacred music

(By J. Edwards)
In simplest definition, music is rhythmical sound used as a means of expression. What it expresses is first in the soul from which it flows. It takes the color of the soul's atmosphere. As an art it is not found in nature, but belongs to the ear, the brain, and the spirit of man. Nature gives only sound of which to make music. It is, therefore, a human art for the expression of the spiritual in man. In its primitive form, as in drum worship and the early religious use of bells, music was really a naive attempt to interview the invisible spirits supposed to reside within them, which responded by rhythmical and more or less melodious sounds. The ascent from a crude, animistic essay at communion with the spiritual world to the Veni Spiritus, Bernard's celestial song, Bach's Passion Music, or the best hymns of Wesley and Faber in fitting musical expression, marks the course of man's religious growth. In sacred music he utters the highest that is in him, and aspires after that which is far higher.